This invention pertains to food processors and, in particular, to an assembly for use with such processors to enable same to handle large food items with maximum safety and ease.
Food processors in use in the home today generally employ a base which supports a bowl for receiving the shredded, sliced or otherwise cut food items. A drive shaft extends upwardly from the base and passes through a hole in the bottom of the bowl. Mounted on the upper end of the drive shaft is a cutting assembly which carries a blade. The blade, in turn, is situated on the raised edge of a radially extending slot of a circular disc. Food items are fed to the blade via a feed tube which extends upwardly from a cover which locks to and closes the upper end of the bowl. A removable pusher is utilized to urge the food items through the feed tube to the blade.
In processors of the above type, the user is usually protected from coming in contact with the blade by providing an actuator on the cover which is adapted to actuate a motor-enabling-switch-assembly only when the cover is properly in place and locked on the bowl. The use of such an actuator, however, still does not prevent the user from contacting the blade via the feed tube. As a result, the feed tube has also been adapted to protect the user by limiting its size. This, in turn, has limited the size of the food items which can be processed.
Various attempts have been made at further adapting home food processors to handle large food items. One arrangement utilizes a feed tube adapter which slides over the feed tube and is used in conjunction with a captured pusher. In this arrangement, the actuator for the motor-enabling-switch-assembly is carried by the feed tube adapter and only when the cover is locked in place on the bowl and the adapter is mounted on the feed tube is the processor motor enabled. This construction, however, has been found to be less than entirely satisfactory.
Another approach utilized in commercial food processors, as distinguished from the above-described home food processors, utilizes a hopper assembly mounted above the processor blade and provided with slits for receiving walls. These walls extend radially inwardly to a maximum point which is short of the centerline of the hopper. As a result, the hopper is segmented by the walls into sectors which are open radially and from above and can be made of increased size to handle large food items.
With this hopper assembly, the processor blade is of special construction so as to avoid cutting near the open central area of the hopper. Furthermore, to prevent cut food from entering this open area, a further attachment in the form of a rod is provided and is mounted on the drive shaft so as to extend into the open area, thereby reducing same.
The pusher of the hopper assembly includes slots for allowing passage of same into the hopper sectors between the walls. Also, the pusher is piston operated and cooperates with a switch which enables the processor motor to operate only after the pusher has been brought to a position where it overlaps at least a 180.degree. area of the hopper opening.
While the aforesaid hopper assembly enables large food items to be processed, it requires a specially adapted blade and a hopper with a plurality of sectors resulting from a plurality of walls. The assembly, therefore, is not readily usable as an attachment for the previously discussed processors used in the home.
It therefore is an object of the present invention to provide an assembly for enabling safe processing of large food items in home processors of the above-mentioned type.